Compact flying printer

ABSTRACT

A compact flying printer having a continuously rotating print drum and ratchet wheel, a trigger lever positionable to be struck by a tooth of said ratchet wheel and a hammer lever driven by said trigger lever and provided with a print hammer at its end. The trigger lever is formed with a linear guide portion for regulating the motion thereof and an energy transmitting portion projected for transmitting energy from said ratchet wheel to said hammer lever.

Shimodaira et a1;

[ COMPACT FLYING PRINTER Yoshifumi' Gomi, Chino, both of Japan I 1 [73]Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Suwa Seikosh and Shinshu Seiki Kabushiki,Tokyo, Japan [22] Filed: Feb. 24, 1971 [21] App1.No.: 118,427

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 27,1970 r-Japan 45-16451 521r1.s.c|..... .QQ .Q. 101/93 c [51] Int. Cl B41j 5/22 [58] Field ofSearch.. 101/93 C, 93 R, 93 MM, 110, 101/95, 96

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,766,686 10/1956 Formenkoet a1 101/93 C 2,897,752 8/1959 Malmros et all.... 101/93 C 1 2,949,8468/1960 Hoffman et a1. 101/93 C -7/1964 Kittler 101/93 C Inventors:Tadayaoshi Shiinodaira, Suwa;

[11 1' 3,795,185 45] Mar;'5,l974

Barnes 101/93 C Primary Examiner-Robert E. Bagwill Assistant ExaminerE.M. Coven Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Blum, Moscovitz, Friedman & Kaplan[57]- ABSTRACT A compact flying printer having a continuously rotatingprint drum and ratchet wheel, a trigger lever positionable, to be struckby a tooth of said ratchet wheel and a hammer lever driven by saidtrigger lever and provided with a print hammer at itsend. The triggerlever is formed with a linear guide portion for regulating the motionthereof and an energy transmitting portion projected for transmittingenergy from said ratchet wheel to said hammer lever.

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1. A compact flying printer comprising a continuously rotating printdrum; a ratchet wheel having at least one projecting tooth andcontinuously rotating in synchronization with said print drum; a triggerlever; guide means for guiding the displacement of said trigger leveralong a path having rotational and linear componets; a hammer lever; aprint hammer carried by said hammer lever for striking engagementagainst said print drum; means for biasing said trigger lever to a restposition on said path out of the locus of said ratchet wheel tooth andengaging said guide means, said trigger lever being formed with a bodyportion terminating in a tail portion at one end thereof, a neck portionprojecting from said body portion at a position spaced from said tailportion, and an energy transmitting portion on the projecting end ofsaid neck portion, said guide means engaging said trigger lever tailportion to guide the pivotable displacement of said trigger lever aboutthe point of engagement of said tail portion and guide means and toguide the essentially linear displacement of said trigger lever relativeto said guide means; means for rotationally displacing said triggerlever along said path in response to the selective application of aprint signal to position said energy transmitting portion of saidtrigger lever in the locus of said ratchet wheel tooth, said guide meansincluding a portion in said path for stopping said rotationaldisplacement, said trigger lever being linearly displaced along saidpath by the striking of the energy transmitting portion thereof by saidratchet wheel tooth, and means mounting said hammer lever for pivotabledisplacement in response to being struck by said trigger lever between afirst position in the linear path of said energy transmitting portionand a second position at which said print hammer is driven against saidprint drum, the neck portion of said trigger lever being formed with astriking face means, said guide means including a further portionpositioned in said linear path of said trigger lever for engagement bysaid striking face means before said print hammer strikes said printdrum, said striking face means on said neck portion of said triggerlever defining an angle phi with said linear portion of said pathfollowed by said trigger lever after being struck by said ratchet wheeltooth, the angle phi being greater than 90* and less than 180*, wherebysaid trigger lever is rotatably displaced along said path so as to carrysaid energy transmitting portion out of the locus of rotation of saidratchet wheel, said guide means guiding the return of said trigger leverto said position.
 2. A compact flying printer as recited in claim 1,wherein said guide means is formed with a stopper portion having astopper surface extending substantially parallel to said linear portionof said path for engagement by the body portion of said trigger leverand positioned to stop the rotational displacement of said trigger leverafter the energy transmitting portion thereof is within the locus ofsaid ratchet wheel tooth, the stopper portion of said guide meansterminating in an edge region in the linear path of the striking facemeans of the neck portion of said trigger lever for cooperation withsaid striking face means to stop the linear displacement of said triggerlever and rotatably displace said trigger lever so that said energytransmitting portion is out of the locus of said ratchet wheel tooth. 3.A compact flying printer as recited in claim 2, wherein said guide meansincludes an aperture for receiving said tail portion of said triggerlever, said aperture being dimensioned to define a pivot point togetherwith said tail for the rotational displacement of said trigger leverwhile permitting the linear displacement of the tail portion of saidtrigger lever through said aperture.
 4. A compact flying printer asrecited in claim 3, wherein said body portion includes a laterallyprojecting stopper face for engagement against said stopper surface ofsaid guide means.
 5. A compact flying printer as recited in claim 3,wherein said guide means includes a guide slot terminating in an endwall and dimensioned to receive said body portion of said trigger lever,said biasing means engaging said body portion against said slot and wallat said rest position, said slot being dimensioned to permit the passageof said trigger lever therethrough for removal of said trigger leverfrom said guide means.
 6. A compact flying Printer as recited in claim1, including a plurality of said hammer levers in side-by-side relation,each of said hammer levers having a portion projecting therefrom in adirection away from said print drum, said printer including a hammerlever guide plate positioned adjacent said print drum with said hammerlever therebetween, said hammer lever guide plate including a pluralityof openings therethrough dimensioned to receive said projecting portionsof said hammer lever for guiding the pivotable displacement of saidhammer lever, said openings in said hammer lever guide being aligned ina zig-zag array consisting of at least two lines of openings, theopenings associated with adjacent hammer levers being on different linesso as to minimize the spacing between adjacent hammer levers.